“The first working day of the year is when lawyers, marriage counsellors and family mediators report the most enquiries from people intending to separate — which has sometimes led to it being coined ‘Divorce Day’ by the media.”

“Where a defendant wished to challenge evidence of earlier convictions which the Crown sought to deploy as relevant to the question of whether the defendant was responsible for the commission of the offences for which he was on trial, the defendant’s bare assertion that he did not commit those earlier offences was inadequate; it was essential that the defendant provide a detailed defence statement identifying all the ingredients of the case which he proposed to advance for the purpose of discharging the evidential burden of proving that he did not commit the earlier offences.”